Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to turn any high-definition TV into an Android running Smart-TV? That’s exactly what Project Pocket TV does and they need your help to get their project started. We have written about Pocket TV and during that time there was 31 days left for consumers to “pledge” money to the program. Now there’s just 5 days left and even though the company has already surpassed their goal of $100,000 with a total of $409,111 in pledges, you are still welcome to pledge. Of course, if you get in now, you can save up to $50 rather than waiting until it’s released. Hit the break for all the details. Read more

We’ve previously reported that the Samsung Galaxy S III uses a special MHL/HDMI adapter and you would not be able to use the last-generation MHL to HDMI adapter cables because of hardware changes. Samsung has come forward with a great solution as they have built a 5-pin to 11-pin adapter that allows the old cable to work with the new phone. They also gave a reason as to why the change was made:

Samsung Galaxy S® III uses an 11-pin micro USB input, which allows it to support MHL output and USB on-the-go input simultaneously – an improvement over 5-pin capability. This means that customers can take advantage of new functions for accessories that are not supported by a 5-pin micro USB connector, allowing a deeper convergence between the Galaxy S III smartphone and a HDTV.

To ease this transition and to allow for greater innovation with Samsung accessories, Samsung Mobile will offer a 5-pin to 11-pin MHL Cable Adapter that will allow the original Samsung HDTV Smart Adapter to function properly with U.S. models of the Galaxy S III, as well as future Samsung premium smartphones. In addition, Samsung is offering consumers the ability to purchase the new adapter separately, or to bundle it with the original HDTV Smart Adapter. Our goal in offering these MHL adapter solutions is to provide consumers with the newest accessory technology while ensuring the highest level of device compatibility.

Do you have $49, a bit of tech savvy and a creative mind? If so then how does building your own Android based PC sound! VIA Technologies‘ Neo-ITX bare-bones Android PC provides you with everything you need to get started, all you need to do is provide the power supply, any additional accessories and a case.

The miniature chipboard runs Android 2.3 and comes equipped with a 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 2GB internal storage. Connectivity is covered too with an HDMI port, four USB ports, an ethernet port and VGA output. Naturally, as with any PC, you can connect a keyboard, a mouse, speakers and a microphone.

The APC is currently up for pre-order and is due to ship early in July however due to high demand it is currently sold out. You can always register your e-mail address on the website if you’d like to be notified as to when there’s new stock. Click the link below to get going.

We know some of you all love your Macbooks, but wouldn’t you love it if you could have the Android OS in a Macbook body? Well thanks to the THD N2-A clamshell notebook, you will be able to enjoy the best of both worlds. The ICS-powered 13.3-inch notebook features an LED-backlit 1366 x 768 LCD screen, 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, 1 gig of DDR3 RAM, built-in WiFi (with an optional ethernet or 3G dongle via the USB ports) and wait for it— a 4200mAh battery. The N2-A does not feature a touchscreen option, so you’ll have to use the touchpad and keyboard (which curiously includes a Windows key by the way) in order to navigate the operating system— though there is the option to connect a USB mouse to the system.

Overall, the N2-A notebook is definitely on the cheaper modest scale. The device itself is incredibly light and thin too for a notebook: it comes in at 3.4 lb, while also including a decent silver finish. You’re probably wondering how much this lovely machine will cost, right? Well, you can’t buy one notebook buy itself, but purchasing the notebook in groups of 500 units will run you about $74,500 from THD directly. But then again you can think of it this way: if you have 500 Android friends who are yearning for some of that Android-on-a-Mac experience, it would come out to about $149 a piece, which is definitely competitive to even premium tablets out there. Hit the break to see photos and video of the N2-A in action.

Do you love your touchscreen, but find it’s not fancy enough for you? Well Tactus might have a solution for you. While at SID 2012, the company showcased its new display product which is a haptic technology offering disappearing physical keys. Yes that’s right— physical keys that actually rise up when in use and disappear when they’re not in use on your display screen. It’s a little hard to fathom, I know but it is currently in development and will likely be a reality when all is said and done, especially as many of us Android users with big hands such as myself may have a difficult time typing on our touchscreen keys, yet loathe actual physical keyboards on our devices. More importantly, it would greatly assist in those with disabilities such as those who are legally blind. This technology would essentially let the masses have their touchscreen cake and eat it too.

While the technology is under development, it has a ways to go before it reaches the mainstream. For starters: the display is only configured for touchscreen layouts. It can only be configured for a QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode and that’s it. This means there are no specific controls such as those meant for gaming and will be incompatible with other keyboard alternatives such as Swype or SwiftKey. Yes it sucks, but you have to start from somewhere I suppose.

Still, you can’t help but be excited for the potential of this technology. I’m sure you’re all itching to get an idea of how this works in action, so why don’t you jump past the break to see a demo video? Read more

Project Glass, Google’s patented augmented reality glasses prototype, made an appearance at today’s Google+ Photographer’s Conference. Project Glass Tech Lead Max Braun showcased how the glasses can be used to take interesting and unique photographs. Afterwards, none other than Sergey Brin took the stage and continued the talk about exposing new artistic opportunities when you don’t need your hands to take a picture.

To get a photographer’s perspective on the project, they asked the conference attendees to send in their suggestions and thoughts.

Watch the video after the break (you’ll want to skip forward 47 minutes to get to the Project Glass discussion).

If you still don’t believe that Google’s Project Glass is real, start believing because you’re only going to see more and more news trickle down the pipeline. We’ve already seen several of Google’s employees trying them on for size, not to mention Google’s own co-founder

Many times when people are bored they turn to activities that can be rather uneventful or sometimes even deviant. In the case of Google engineer Paul Carff, his bout of boredom lead to a project that is neither deviant or uneventful and the term bad-ass definitely comes to mind. Meet KegDroid, aka “Betsy”, Carff’s automated kegerator that is controlled by a Motorola Xoom tablet and an NFC card.

KegDroid is essentially an Arduino-automated beer dispenser that that uses an NFC card to link to your Google account. Once linked up and as long as you are authorized, a special app pops up that allows you to pick from the two beers on tap and select the amount of brew to be poured. KegDroid is currently just a personal project that belongs to Carff but in the video he mentions that we would like to see it available around the world in the future. That means that we are stuck dreaming about owning such a cool toy for the time being. Jump past the break to see Carff’s full demo video and to see what could be in store for us in the future. Read more

One of the most reported complaints about the ASUS Transformer Prime is the trouble it has locking on to a GPS signal. Now, whether or not that is even a valid complaint for a tablet can be argued until blue in the face. I personally think using a tablet for a GPS unit is a silly thought and would never think to Velcro my Prime to my cars window or strap it to my bike’s handlebars. But who am I to judge? And apparently ASUS doesn’t want to judge either because they want to keep their positive customer service in tact and have offered Prime owners a solution – a free GPS dongle.

All a Prime owner needs to do is simply register their tablet and in a few weeks will receive this tablet add-on in the mail. Speaking of receiving a dongle in the mail, our pals at Engadget already got their dongle and put together a little video showing how it can drastically improve GPS reception. The Prime managed to lock on to 16 satellites in only a matter of seconds and should prove to be more than enough signal for anyone. It may not be the prettiest of solutions, but hey, at least it free. Jump past the break to check it out in action. Read more

“[P]iracy is a huge problem for Android devs, and we don’t want to duplicate the chaotic cesspool of Android market.”

While it seems like it’s a direct attack on the Android platform, there’s actually some reasoning to his statement. The Android MarketPlay Store has a number of quality apps available, but every now and then users will have to search through a multitude of poorly developed apps in order to find the real jewels. RIM wants to keep the integrity of its own app store by keeping its app ecosystem full of quality apps— even if the number is dwarfed by what is found in the Play Store. That means reducing the number of unofficially ported apps to the PlayBook in favor of a smaller number of apps that were developed, tested and certified by developers and RIM.